I took the time to try both versions, the jam submission version (v1.01) and the current version (v2.01). For rating purposes I will comment on the jam submission one first, then I will give feedback on the latest version.
The graphics and animations are very impressive. It’s a pretty fun beat’em up, but really not much of a shoot’em up at all. The hits feel great and I like that there is a follow up punch animation when the enemy is near. The explosions of the enemies when they die feel very satisfying. Gameplay is minimal and the magical girl concepts can be fleshed out more, but understandable since it was made in a couple of days. There is one big problem with the fighting - the punches are static and cannot target enemies who are of a different elevation from you. Worse, you can’t get to the same elevation if there are obstacles/walls, so in some situations it can be difficult to even get into a fight. Nevertheless, I had a decent amount of fun beating my way through to the fire-breathing boss. Well done!
Now this is completely separate from the jam rating, just some feedback for v2.01.
The things addressed right in the current version:
- Movement speed is good now.
The things worsened in the current version:
- Enemy/level design, too many of them and they are quite “bullet-spongy.” For beat-em-ups, they can usually remain spongy (and maybe even preferably so) if the player has more tools at their disposal, which I don’t feel that I do, so it feels a little tedious.
- As XCVG mentioned, the stagger during hits is poorly done. It slows the game down too much. v1.01 is better in this regard, and is already quite good at showing the impact of the player’s hits.
- Fight elevation issue still exists, and worsened now that there are small little bees.
- Since this is a single-player game, or even if it was a multiplayer game but at least in single-player mode, perhaps the player need not select a control scheme? They are all mutually exclusive, so why not allow all control schemes to be active at once, or is that a limitation of the Construct game engine?
If I was rating v2.01, although all the added graphical assets and animations are awesome, I would probably give it a lower score than v1.01. Fists of Magic has great potential, and I can see it being really fun with more refinements to come. I look forward to seeing more of it. Keep up the good work!